La pomme d'or

That's "the golden apple" in French. Reading some headlines in the major French newspapers this morning online, I was struck by their clarity and perspective on the earnings report from Apple yesterday after the close of the market. Here are the headlines:

Pour Apple, "la récession n'existe pas" - Le Monde

Apple snobe la crise - Le Figaro.

Translations are "For Apple, the recession does not exist" and "Apple snubs the crisis".

Rather positive, no ?

Here's FT: Apple profits soar on strong iPhone sales - "Apple blew past all but the most bullish predictions in the fiscal third quarter, driven by sales of 5.2m iPhones, more than seven times the volume of a year earlier.

The sales figure is all the more remarkable because the period ending June 27 took in the introduction of the Apple 3GS and the halving of prices on the older 3G models, to $99, with both occurring in the last month of the quarter."

Here's WSJ: Apple Net Up 15% on iPhone Surge - "Apple Inc. continued to buck the recession, posting a 15% jump in quarterly profit and saying it was unable to supply enough iPhones and Macintosh computers to meet demand."

Apple delivers year-over-year profit growth in a severe recession.

What can one conclude ?

People will spend money for a high quality, well-designed premium product that delivers its promises. If one listened to the US press, one would think everyone in the nation was brown-bagging it and buying only store brand items. True, they are doing that more often, BUT they also have the money and desire for good, new products. Putting this together, one can see that people are being smarter buyers. That's not pessimistic - just smarter.

The world is not ending - people are slowly learning to be smarter. There is a bright side.

Mrs. B owns AAPL in her Sky Fund.

In my "humble" opinion, AAPL will eventually get 25% of the PC market as Windows continues to deliver crappy operating systems. People will get more comfortable buying Macs as they get experience with their iPhones, iPods and other small computers to come. That means huge earnings growth for years.

Word of the Day

"Encomium" - noun [$10]
Encomium means 1. glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise; also an expression of this; 2. a formal expression of praise: tribute.
Sentence: Apple's operating performance deserves universal encomiums, but the doomsters will find something to gripe about.

Le Mot du Jour

"Pomme" - noun, feminine
Pomme means apple - the fruit. La pomme de terre is the potato. "Pomme" can also mean a sucker and is used in a number of other expressions.
La Phrase: La tarte aux pommes est un dessert délicieux.
Sentence: Apple pie is a delicious dessert.